Necessary Evil
by Menchin
Summary: "What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."
1. Chapter 1

AUDIO LOG #000357008

DATE : 1.5.2157

_Well, it seems that the turians have finally decided to show up. Took them long enough. I was starting to get worried that I had seriously fucked up the timeline._

_This war is supposed to last, what, five months? Maybe it's four, I never really took the time to read anything from the Codex._

_I wonder what would happen if I was to kill Harper right now. Cerberus wouldn't be founded, of course. All of the horrendous things that they would have done normally would be prevented. But then Shepard would never get brought back from the dead. The Collectors would never be stopped. Subsequently, the Reapers wouldn't get stopped. And we can't have that, now can we. _

_If I killed Harper, then all of the work I've done would be for nothing. And I do hate wasting resources._

* * *

I suppose I should start this off like everyone else, by introducing myself.

My name is, appropriately, Raymond Reddington. The name that I was using while being trained by the Alliance was Isaac Walker. Let me introduce you to both.

* * *

_Raymond Reddington is a fugitive. Number 1 on C-Sec's Most Wanted list. Date of birth unknown. Physical appearance unknown. Claims to be human. He surrendered himself to C-Sec in the year 2170. He then, for unknown reasons, helped C-Sec capture various other dangerous criminals. Disappeared in 2172. Suspected to be the leader of an unknown crime syndicate. Rumored to be involved with Aria T'Loak. Bounty: 21.000.000 credits_

_Isaac Walker is an Alliance clandestine operations officer. Date of birth unknown. 6 feet and 3 inches tall. Athletic build. 27% of body covered in scars. Brown hair. Dark blue eyes. Human. Enlisted in the Alliance Military in the year 2172. Finished ICT with his team: John Houston, Abigail Johnson, Frank Barnes and Katherine Shepard. Immediately after gets inducted into the 'Ghost Program'._

Should've used Gary Stu, now that I think about it.

**Notable missions:**

_Operation Ishimura: Routine search and rescue mission. Walker's team is extracted. He is listed as MIA for 6 months. Sends distress signal. Suffers mental breakdown after extraction. Diagnosed with PTSD. No further action is taken._

_Akuze: Routine search and rescue mission. Thresher Maw attack occurs. 48 marines dead. Shepard and Walker are the only survivors. Walker complains about frequent excruciating migranes. No action is taken._

_Torfan: Standard raid. Under Walker's orders, 250 marines march to their deaths. He takes a squad of ten to wipe out the remaining batarians. After several failed attemps, Walker orders orbital bombardment of the planet. The moon is now uninhabitable. Captain Anderson suggests court martial. No action is taken._

* * *

Well, were those little pieces of exposition good enough for you? Good, that means that I can get on with this.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Not really sure if I did Aria justice here. Have fun.**

* * *

AUDIO LOG # 000157935

DATE: ERROR

**WARNING DATA CORRUPTED**

_So, this is what N5s do, huh? Repair mining ships? No, this mission came straight from the Admiral, there has to be some kind of catch… Heh, maybe-_**WARNING DATA CORRUPTED**

_Jesus Barnes, what are you, 5? The boogeyman isn't gonna fly out of one of those vents. If you're gonna be such a pansy, then I'll do it. Just give me the damn cutter. Ha ha, that's very funny Shep-_**WARNING DATA CORRUPTED**

_Something's wrong. Houston went to look for the captain three hours ago. He should have been back by now… Hey Shepard! Shepard? Barnes? Where the hell did they go?_

_Something's scrambling my electronics, I can't get any of the others to respond. And where the hell is the crew? There was some kind of fight on this ship, we saw blood when we went through the bridge. The captain's dead. Looks like he has been for quite a while. Still no sign of Barnes, Shepard, Houston or Johnson. Hope this doesn't end up like one of those horror mov-vids. Gonna have to edit that part out._

* * *

If there's one thing I don't like about the Blue Suns, it's their sense of timing. They just so happened to show up just when I was making a deal with one of my dirty C-Sec cops? No, I don't think so. A mole in my organization probably tipped them off. I'll have to do a thorough investigation later. For you non-business minded people, that means I'll find the mole and kill him.

"You think you can double cross the Blue Suns?", an unimportant batarian wearing Blue Suns armor says with fake anger and confidence, as he and his cohorts point their pea shooters at me.

"You see me talking to a turian wearing C-Sec armor and already think that I've betrayed your trust?", I say, my filtered voice sounding much colder than I had intended. "You never once stopped to think that I was recruiting this fine gentleman?"

"I, uh, didn't think of that…", the idiot says, apparently just about ready to empty his bladder.

"Exactly. You weren't thinking. Put your guns down so we can talk like civilized murderers.", I say, as I walk over to a bench and sit on it, watching as my C-Sec friend walks away, pondering what I'll do when he becomes useless to me. Probably send someone to kill him and his family.

Making the wise decision, the Blue Suns merc and his associates put their guns back on to their magnetic holsters. He makes some kind of hand signal, probably telling them to back away for a bit, but stay close enough so they can defend him if I try something. Or maybe he's just shooing them away. Doesn't really matter.

"So", he starts, with some hesitation, "is the shipment ready?"

"Yes, it's ready. 50 UT-47 Kodiaks, disassembled and put into red and black painted shipping containers at Bay 15. They'll have asari diplomatic seals on them so you won't have to worry about Citadel Customs. Fuel not included.", I finish, already eager to get away from the lovely chap.

"50 Kodiaks, huh?", he whistles appreciatively, "Wonder what the boss paid you.", he starts staring at me, no doubt thinking that I'll answer his not-question.

I humor him, "He didn't pay me anything, just promised to do me a favor."

"What kind of favor?", the merc prods. Now why would he ask me that? He's not C-Sec, I know that much. Most likely from one of the rival merc gangs, sent to spy on Tarak's operations. Should I tell him?

Why not, it's not like he can do anything about it.

"I gave Tarak a bio-weapon and told him to release it in the Council Chambers in five hours.", I say truthfully, enjoying the look of horrified surprise on his face.

"B-bio weapon?", he stutters, terrified out of his mind. Yep, definitely not a Blue Suns merc.

"Yes, bio-weapon, as in biological weapon, a harmful biological agent used as a weapon. Understand now?", I say as condescendingly as possible.

He shifts his position to angle away from me and to the door, obviously very uncomfortable in my presence. I don't blame him. "Yeah, I understand." he murmurs, stands up, calls his associates over and walks away, no doubt to report to his boss.

Several minutes pass as I type away at my omni-tool, finishing some mission reports. Wonder if Hackett will find this 'satisfactory'.

And just as I was getting comfy on my two meter long metal bench, my omni-tool starts beeping, signaling that someone is calling me.

'Unknown caller'.

Probably Aria.

I answer and a deceptively warm voice greets me "Reddington, get your ass over here. Now." I may have overstated the warmth part but I was right, this is definitely Aria.

"Where exactly is 'here'?", I ask, attempting to annoy her.

"Afterlife, smartass. Now get over here or I'll have some of my boys knock you out and drag you over here.", she replies. Apparently, my attempt worked.

I smirk, and the moment I see the calendar on my omni tool, my smirk disappears.

27 days to go.

Fantastic.

* * *

**AN: So the intro part is over, next part is Eden Prime. See ya.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: This is what I'm sure of you have been waiting for, the introduction of Commander Shepard and other beloved characters.**

* * *

AUDIO LOG # 555555555555-**ERROR**

**DATE UNAVAILABLE**

_Don't know how long I've been here. Omni says two weeks, but it feels like two months. Wonder if the others got out OK. Or at least Shepard._

_Been fighting more of those… things recently. One of the scientists called them Necro-somethings. Think it was Necromorphs. Also told me to use the plasma cutter Barnes gave me to kill them. Then he got impaled by one of the 'Morphs. Later saw __**'CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS'**__ scrawled on the wall of the kitchen. Very convenient blood text placement. The guy who put it there must've been having the time of his life._

_Something's happened to me. My mind, I mean. Been seeing hallucinations. First shadows in the corner of my eye, then Houston's standing in an elevator with me, telling me that 'all of this' is 'my fault'. I resent that, Houston. It was only 50% my fault._

_Also saw hallucinations of… some long dead… people. I'm sure the therapist will make me tell her all about it._

_I'm gonna be here a while, I think._

_I wonder if this ship has a Paragade dispenser…_

* * *

Let me tell you, Eden Prime is not a very outsider-friendly place. Or maybe they just don't like people wearing full body engineering suits with the N7 logo and an old Commander stripe. Yeah, probably that.

I've been here for all of three days and already Ashley Williams hates me. It's not like I meant to slit the throats of those three muggers . It was entirely accidental.

Speaking of, it seems that an aircar spun out of control and crashed into the apartment of C-Sec officer Lanteus Jorril right before he was going to leave for work, killing him, his wife and two children. Such a shame. But he did bring it upon himself, calling Pallin to report what I was planning.

I think I came to Eden Prime a little earlier that I should have. The geth should have showed up by now, what with the Prothean beacon getting moved and all.

In the distance, I start hearing screaming, then what sounds like gunfire. Probably some pirates come to raid the colony.

Suddenly, a bloodied Ashley Williams bursts through the door, shouting "We're under attack! We're under attack!"

Guess that's my cue.

While all the other patrons of the bar run towards the front door like panicked sheep, I quietly slip through the back door with the hot asari bartender...

...And promptly use her as a meat shield when the five geth troopers that were closing in on the back door start firing at us.

I pull my M-11 suppressed pistol and fire three shots at the shotgun wielding geth, taking its shields down and blowing its optics off. The other four fire at me, hitting my shields, but doing no significant damage. I take cover behind a conveniently placed chest high wall.

Popping out of cover, I throw a nice little Warp at the geth closest to me. It stumbles back, falling over one of its friends and onto some conveniently placed power cables.

I easily dispatch the two others with some well-placed shots from my pistol.

I may have forgotten to mention that I was a biotic, too. Aren't I just wonderfully overpowered?

I quickly look over at the pulse rifles lying on the ground. In pieces. Damn. Could have used those.

I take a look at the sky, seeing a giant ship landing, burning crops for miles around its landing area. Guess Sovereign's here. Oh, and the sky turned red, probably should have mentioned that earlier.

I climb up a hill that overlooks basically the entire starport and part of the dig site. I pull from my back a nice, shiny Mantis sniper rifle and watch through a scope as Ashley's team is massacred by geth. Just as the last marine falls, lo and behold, Commander Kathrine Shepard appears, in all her 5'8 blonde glory. I may or may not have stared at her ass through the scope for a few moments. Admit it, you would have done the same.

Williams and Shepard chat for a bit, while lieutenant Poker Face looks around, as if he's expecting a bullet in the back of the head. I'm tempted, but that too would mess the normal course of things up.

In the background, the Dragon's Teeth drop, unleashing the husks. Wonder if Alenko will notice them in time.

He doesn't.

So, when one of the husks grabs Ashley's shoulders and starts snapping at the back of her neck, I decide to take my shot, blowing the thing's hideous head off.

Finally, Shepard's N7 training decides to kick in, and she starts mowing down the husks with some cheap standard-issue assault rifle.

That's my girl.

Unfortunately, my girl forgot to check her surroundings and some geth started firing at her and the others.

Alenko uses some basic biotic attacks to try and take out one of the geth. Biotics aren't all that effective against shields, idiot.

Ashley and Shepard do all the heavy lifting, destroying the geth in seconds with their combined fire.

Looks like Shepard noticed where the shot came from, as she turns and looks straight at me. There's no way she can actually see my face, not from this distance.

Standing up, I turn away from my makeshift sniper nest and start jogging down the hill towards the spaceport, hoping to snap a picture of Saren shooting ol' Nihlus in the back of the head. Unfortunately, I hear the shot just as I get to the shacks where Shepard was just moments ago. Guess I wasn't jogging fast enough.

I catch up to Shep and co. just as they force Powell to come out of his little hidey-hole and points guns at him.

"Now Shepard, I thought I taught you only to point guns at people you're going to shoot.", I say, lowering my helmet. All three of them turn around and point their guns at me. Well, that's ironic. I think. Never did pay attention at English class.

"Identify yourself!", the Elvis wannabe barks at me, almost as if he doesn't notice the N7 sign prominently displayed on my chestplate.

"Seriously?", I ask incredulously. They all keep pointing their guns at me, even Shepard. Can she not see my damn face?

"Fine", they can hear the sound of me rolling my eyes, I bet. "Commander Isaac Walker of the Alliance Military." I finish with a half-assed salute. "I'm hurt that you didn't recognize me, Kit-Kat.", I say teasingly to Shepard.

They lower their guns.

Ashley stifles a laugh. "Don't call me that.", Shepard says, all the while blushing furiously. In case you didn't know, that particular nickname doesn't appeal to her.

"Anyway, what are you even doing here Walker?", Shepard asks, getting back into her professional mode.

"I'm supposed to kill some batarian terrorist that was probably on his way here.", I pause, looking up at the sky, "I'm guessing he's gonna change vacation plans. What are you doing here?", I ask, fully aware of what she was doing here.

"I need to recover a Prothean beacon. In fact, I could use your help with this.", she says, probably knowing that I won't be able to refuse an offer to work with her one more time.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Commander.", Ashley protests, glaring at me hatefully. Kaidan doesn't say a word, suprisingly.

"Objection noted." Shepard says sharply, and motions for me to follow her. I gladly do.

"I suppose you're in charge of this operation, Shepard?", I ask her as we round the corner, seeing some geth troopers facing away from us.

"Yes, now take out those geth Walker, show us what you can do.", she says with a grin.

"Naturally.", I say as I engage my cloak and start stalking towards the two geth units.

* * *

**AN: CLIFFHANGEEER! See ya.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I decided to skip over the rest of the Eden Prime mission.**

* * *

AUDIO LOG # 0009877668

DATE: 5.8.2170

_Within the hour salarian terrorist Jarum Vasola will abduct the daughter of asari diplomat Nila Axyria. There will be some kind of diversion, communications will be scrambled and he'll grab the girl. He wants to be in the Terminus systems in 36 hours and if you don't move quickly she will die. That's what I know._

_Because I'm the one who got him into the Citadel._

_Hahaha, no, of course not, I'm a criminal, criminals are notorious liars._

_Everything about me is a lie._

_Have fun saving the day, Detective._

* * *

Something burning itself into your mind is not a pleasant experience. First time that happened to me was on the Ishimura. The Prothean beacon burning visions about Reapers into my brain was the second time.

But, unlike Shepard, who passed out from the experience, I remained awake.

And now I sit in the Normandy med- bay, out of my armor, chatting with Doctor Chakwas, waiting for Shepard to wake up.

Pain that would make a krogan battlemaster weep worms its way into my head, making me wince slightly. The good doctor notices, naturally.

"I simply don't understand how you're awake. If the same thing that happened to Commander Shepard happened to you, you should be unconscious from the pain.", she asks me, intrigued.

"Don't worry Doc, I'm used to constant agonizing pain.", I say with a strained smile.

After several moments of silence, I decide to get out of the med-bay before Anderson shows up.

I exit the med-bay and decide to go down to the shuttle bay. Maybe I could buy some things from the requisitions officer.

As I walk over to the elevator, almost everyone I pass gives me dirty looks, obvious or when I pass them.

Guess Ashley told them who I am.

As the elevator makes its way down to the Engineering and Storage deck, I ponder what I should do now. I had originally planned to only help Shepard on Eden Prime, then make a plausible excuse and leave, return to being the elusive Raymond Reddington and prepare for the coming war. But now, with the Prothean visions burned into both our heads, any attempt at convincing her to let me go would be futile. And with Garrus joining us soon, hiding the fact that I am the person that he has been hunting for half of his career will be hard. I'm going to need some help. Maybe I could-

The elevator dings, snapping me out of my thoughts and signaling that I'm at the Engineering deck.

I walk over to the Mako, completely disregarding the fact that I originally wanted to buy something from the requisitions officer, and stare at the wheels.

Or well, the lack of wheels.

"What the hell…", I say under my breath.

I crawl under the Mako and see something so horrifying that it puts everything that I've ever experienced before to shame.

The gyroscope isn't properly aligned.

A sense of dread washes over me as I think about what we're going to experience when Shepard drives this thing.

I've gotta fix this thing before Shepard wakes up.

I get out from under the Mako and run over to the requisitions officer as fast as I can. Which is pretty fast.

"I need a wrench, plasma torch and four wheels and tires, ASAP.", I say to the requisitions officer with a crazed look in my eyes.

He regards me with some trepidation. "Wha-"

"There's no time to explain!", I shout, startling him and drawing the attention of Ashley and some engineers.

"Okay, okay, here!"

He hands me an adjustable wrench and a plasma torch. The torch is shit quality, nothing compared to my precious Plasma Cutter, but it'll do.

"There are some spare tires and wheels in those storage crates over there.", he says, while pointing a shaking finger at, you guessed it folks, some storage crates.

I run over to the Mako, going under it, and quickly download the gyro blueprints to my ocular implant. It seems the gimbal is completely screwed. Looks like this requires some engineering magic. Piece of cake. Guess the N7 Engineering course paid off.

When I get up from under the Mako, I see that I've attracted a bit of a crowd. Mostly engineers. Also Ashley, giving me a suspicious look. It's not like I planted a bug under the Mako so I can hear what Garrus will be saying, no sir. Or ma'am in this case.

Now that the main problem is taken care of, I walk over to the storage crate and pop it open with my biotics. I lift all four wheels and bring them over to the Mako. I then remember how many bullshit nuts and bolts I'll have to attach to get the wheel to stay on the vehicle.

After an hour and seven seconds of bolt attaching, most of the crowd is gone. Only Ashley remains, still trying to burn a hole in the back of my head with her eyes. Sorry Ash, you aren't Superwoman.

I turn my head to look at her "Shouldn't your legs hurt from standing up motionlessly for that long?"

She glares.

"Do you have cybernetics? Because I have them too, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

She glares.

"Nice talking with you, Ashley."

I turn back to my wheel, and just as I finish attaching it, something taps me on the shoulder.

I overreact intentionally, jumping up and swinging my wrench wildly in the general direction of the person who tapped me on the shoulder.

And there stands Shepard, with her arms crossed and an amused smirk on her face.

How the hell did she cross her arms that fast, you ask? I don't know, maybe she has magic powers.

"Having fun there, _Engineer_ Walker?", she asks, her smirk only growing.

I disregard the jab at my choice of pass-times and pocket my wrench.

"I'm making some adjustments to the Mako so you don't kill someone with your driving.", I say dryly.

She rolls her eyes, but I can tell that this will be remembered.

"Captain Anderson wants to talk to you, Walker. He's up in his quarters."

"Yeah yeah, I'll be right there, _ma'am_.", I say, expecting a frown and a 'don't call me that'.

She frowns and says "Don't call me that, it makes me feel old."

"Well, your 30th birthday _is _in a couple of months, so…"

"Go talk to Anderon before I rip out your vocal cords out.", she says with a glare.

I give her a lazy two-fingered salute. "Aye-aye."

As I make my way up to the Captain's Quarters, I think about what he would want to talk to me about. Probably going to kick me off of his ship when we dock at the Citadel. Perhaps I should elaborate. In 2178 I was sent by Admiral Hackett to be a leader of a squad during a raid on Torfan, a small moon that was mainly used as a base for criminals, most of them batarians. Now, there were several reasons as to why I accepted this mission.

Reason number one: I needed to cement my reputation as a soldier who holds the 'ends justify the means' mindset which Anderson disapproves of, so he would focus less on me and more on Shepard, putting her in the spotlight.

Number two: I wanted Shepard to start distancing herself from me.

Number three: Some of my associates thought that selling the locations of my credit laundering facilities to the Blue Suns would be a good idea. In short, retribution.

Now, the mission didn't go exactly as planned, we had suffered heavy casualties and my attempts at flanking the batarians were all met with failure. So I made a call. I overruled Major Kyle's orders and ordered orbital bombardment of the moon. And, in the span of half an hour, the 100.000 criminals and Alliance marines were all dead and the moon's surface completely destroyed. Anderson requested a court-martial which was promptly denied. He was suspicious, naturally, and started looking into my past. Didn't end well.

The elevator finally reaches the Quarters.

I exit the elevator and swiftly make my way to the Captain's cabin.

I enter the annoyingly brightly lit cabin and hear the sound of running water coming from the bathroom area. Too long to be the toilet, too loud to be the sink, must be the shower.

I sit down at his desk and look at the datapads that were most likely thrown haphazardly on it the moment he entered this cabin.

Let's see here… Omega, Tuchanka, Titan Station, Luna Base, those are the ones that stand out to me currently. Titan Station… why does that sound familiar?

The sound of running water suddenly stops, snapping me from my thoughts.

I'll figure it out later.

I quickly download the contents of those four datapds to my omni-tool and walk back to the door of the cabin and lean on it.

And there he is, Captain David Anderson, in his hideous blue Captain's clothes.

"So, you finally decided to grace me with your presence, Walker?"

Well, he's in a chipper mood today.

"Just tell me why I'm here, Anderson.", I say, deciding to cut to the chase.

He sighs.

"I know that both you and Shepard were affected by the beacon. She already told me what she saw, I want to hear what you saw.", he says, looking me in the eye.

"Death, destruction, suffering, nothing I haven't seen before, that's for sure."

He stares at me for a couple of moments, almost as if he's trying to make some kind of decision about me.

"I'm going to be frank here, Walker, I don't like you.", he says bluntly.

"Yeah, I could tell when you tried to court-martial me."

He glares at me for a moment, then continues.

"But Shepard does. She trusts you. More than you know. And I know that you two were inseparable at ICT and beyond that."

I furrow my brow, wondering what he means by that.

"You know her. She can be reckless, stubborn, impulsive. That gets you killed. But you're not like that, you're cold, calculating, you plan every move and the next 30 moves beyond that."

Don't know whether I should take that as a compliment or an insult.

"Which is why I'm assigning you to be her... protector, for lack of a better word.", he says with a small smile on his face.

"Anderson, I hope you realize that all I have to do is make one call and I'm off of this ship, never to be seen again."

"Yes I know.", he agrees with a nod. "But I also know that you aren't going to make that call."

I pause, and for a moment I consider leaving, fighting Cerberus and the Reapers from the shadows.

And then I reconsider.

"Where do I sign?", I say with a small smile of my own.

_You're pathetic._

Shut up.

* * *

**See you later.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: ****I didn't know what to call the part of the Dead Space RIG that lifts up and surrounds your head, so I just called it a helmet.**

* * *

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO LOG # 0502856869

DATE:10.15.2180

**Raymond**_: So, do you have it?_

**Dr. Saleon**_: Yes, it took a considerable amount of resources to get it. So…_

**R_: _**_S__o?_

**Dr. S**_: What is it? What does it do?_

**R**_: You got your credits and your test subjects. Don't push your luck._

**Dr. S**_: Yes yes, I apologize. I still don't understand why you couldn't get this. You have a far larger pool of resources than me._

**R**_: Don't want to risk getting any of my fingerprints, so to speak, on it._

**Dr. S**_: So, if something goes wrong, the authorities will be hunting me._

**R**_: Astute observational skills you have there. _

**Dr. S**_: Wonderful. Well, I really should be leaving, many tests to run._

**R**_: Yes, a most good bye._

_*5 minutes of silence*_

_*Savant omni-tool start up jingle*_

**R**_: Yes, I would like to report something. I saw a salarian handing a human a suspicious looking black cube with red markings in a warehouse in the 800 blocks No, this is not a prank call. Yes, I'll wait for the officers to arrive. Goodbye._

_*Footsteps*_

_*1 minute of silence*_

_*sirens*_

* * *

You know what I really miss? Waffles. Real, Earth waffles, not that crap that they serve in the restaurants these days.

Also, putting on this suit without an armor assembler is tedious. It took me 45 minutes to put this damn thing on.

Perhaps you're wondering why I would need my armor. Well, the Council wants to know what happened to Nihlus and the beacon. We're currently closing in on the Citadel.

Which is why I'm here, sighting my new Lancer assault rifle. Terrible weapon, blenders have more power than this stupid piece of-

"_Walker, get your ass to the cockpit._", Shepard's voice booms directly into my ears.

I lower the volume of my comms down to 40%. Probably a wise choice.

"On my way."

I quickly check my Lancer one more time, raise my helmet and turn on my HUD.

Let's see here… Ammo, check. Radar, check. Tactical Situation Analyzer, check. Good to go.

As I make the trek to the cockpit, I think about who I'm going to leave in charge of maintaining my less… legal operations. Probably Laetiria. I always did intend for her to be my replacement.

I enter the elevator and see my biggest fan, Ashley inside of it.

We stand in awkward silence as the elevator makes its slow journey to the quarters.

I wonder why she hates me so much. I don't remember ever killing any of her relatives. Maybe she hates me because of my reputation? I'll have to ask later. Or get Shepard to ask, that always works.

The elevator opens and Ashley begins powerwalking to the bridge.

I take my time, looking around as I walk. Now that I think about it, this layout for the CIC isn't all that bad. But come on, stairs on a ship? Really?

I get to the cockpit just as the magnetic clamps start holding the ship in place and see Shepard, Alenko and Williams.

"You took your sweet time getting here, Walker." Said Shepard with a glare aimed at me.

"I decided to take the scenic route."

She decides to ignore my little remark.

After several minutes of waiting for the Alliance Control tower to confirm that we are who we say we are and not, for instance, galaxy-wide wanted criminals. Yeah, that could never happen.

It takes us about 10 minutes to make it to Ambassador Udina's little office.

"This is an outrage!" Yeah. Fight the power, dude-bro.

The Council and Udina go at it for a few minutes and then the Council hangs up on him. His face when that happened was priceless.

He turns to us.

"Anderson, I see you've brought half of your crew with you."

And while they talk, I get a message on my omni-tool. I transfer it to my HUD.

'_Something's come up. Meet me in the Dark Star Lounge in half an hour.'_

And it's from… Telia Seloni, one of my associates.

Wonderful, more problems.

I begin thinking about what is going to happen within the next few weeks. Several less than pleasant and very clichéd things, I'm sure.

Shepard taps me on the shoulder.

"Hey Walker, you with us?" she says, with a slightly worried look in her eyes.

"Hm? Yeah, I zoned out for a bit." I lie easily.

"Okay, we need to go meet the Council."

"I can't wait." I deadpan.

We exit the office and get to the Presidium.

"Big place." Alenko remarks with some awe in his voice.

"Yes, we noticed." I say, my eternal deadpan doing wonders to add to the tension in his shoulders.

I suddenly remember the message that I got.

"Hey Shepard." I address her, lowering my helmet "I need to take a little detour. I'll meet you in an hour."

She gives me a questioning look. Ashley, as is her way, glares at me suspiciously.

"You gonna tell us where you're going?" Ashley says, still trying to murder me with her eyes.

I gasp with exaggerated surprise "You actually said more than half of a sentence to me? Shock!"

This doesn't amuse her.

"To answer your question, I'm going to meet a friend of mine."

She does a little half-step forward and says accusingly, "You're not telling us the whole story."

"He never tells anyone the _whole story_, Ashley.", says Shepard, a tinge of amusement in her voice. "Now come on, we need to get to the Council."

"Take pictures!" I shout when they get about 20 feet away.

They ignore me. So inconsiderate.

I turn, raising my helmet, and start making my way over to the Dark Star.

As I walk, I think about what Telia wants to tell me. Actually, I don't want to know. Every time she tells me that _'something's come up' _it's either to tell me that another one of my facilities has been raided or to send me on some suicide mission.

Also, some people have been tailing me for the duration of my trek to the Dark Star. Three, to be exact, a drell, a salarian and a human. They're too obvious to be STG or Alliance Intelligence. So it's either Cerberus or the Shadow Broker.

As I finally enter the Dark Star Lounge, I decide to lower my helmet and take in the horrible music and smell of hypocrisy.

The radar on my ocular implant alerts me that the people tailing me have entered the Lounge. I walk over to the bar, casually looking around.

Three targets, one seated in far left corner of Lounge, one standing near exit, one entering VIP room. Approximately 30 civilians in the room.

Also, the lighting is nice.

I tap the bar, signaling the bartender.

"What's yer poison?" a human man with a peculiar accent and scraggly beard asks me.

"Give me three of your strongest drinks, please."

"Aye." He turns around and starts rummaging through some kind of old wooden box. The box looks like it came straight out of a 17th century pirate ship.

After a few moments, he slams three bottles of some kind of black primordial ooze onto the countertop. Put some water in there and it'll become a new species.

"Gave this to a Krog'n. Died after half a pint!" He starts laughing, the laugh of someone who just won the lottery three times in a row.

"It's perfect, thank you." I say with a devious smirk and slide a credit ship his way.

I take the bottles and walk over to the VIP lounge. There I see Telia, as impatient as ever, tapping her fingers on the table she is sitting at, datapads strewn about.

I make my way to her.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that patience is a virtue?"

Her eyes widen, she yelps and jumps up, resulting in her knee hitting the bottom of the table, causing her to yelp again and plop right back down into the seat.

"Are all asari this jumpy?" I say, my voice laced with dry amusement. "Or is it just my comforting presence that makes you jump in fear?"

She looks up at me with a glare, rubbing her knee.

I put the three bottles down on the table and sit down.

It takes my dear Telia several moments to recover from her debilitating knee bump.

"You know, every time you say you need to talk to me about something, you sound like you're about to tell me that you have some kind of terminal illness." I say, tapping my fingers on the table.

"Ha ha, that's very funny."

"I try."

We sit in silence for a couple of minutes, her glaring and me simply staring with a blank look on my face.

"You know Telia, I was under the impression that you wanted to tell me something."

Her glare softens and she looks away.

"It's… it's about Fyers." She all but whispers.

My jolly mood evaporates the moment I hear that name.

Perhaps I should elaborate.

Edward Fyers. 46. Former Alliance Intelligence agent. Leader of a medium sized mercenary group. No family. Caused what is now called the 'Ishimura Incident' with Doctor David Pearce. Number 5 on the Most Wanted list. Bounty: 2.500.000 credits.

I think you can guess why I don't like him very much.

"What about him?" I ask calmly.

"He's been recruited by a turian Spectre, Saren."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. Now I'll have to deal with Saren _and _Fyers.

"What for?" I ask, getting more frustrated by the second.

"Says here it's for '_protection'_." She says, airquotes and all.

"I highly doubt a Spectre would need to hire mercenaries."

I sigh again. Seems to be a common thing these days.

"Doesn't matter. I'll deal with him later."

We sit in silence for several minutes, me wondering how this whole thing with Fyers is going to play out and Telia fiddling with some datapad that was on the table.

"Thank you for the information, Telia."

I get up, pick up one of the bottles, turn on my Cloak and walk away briskly.

As I exit the room, she looks up from her datapad.

"No pro-" she cuts herself off, looks around and sighs.

Seems to be a common thing these days.

* * *

**AN: Well that was fun.**

**See you later.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Sorry for not updating, something possessed me to play through Max Payne 3 again.**

* * *

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO LOG # 5563000374

DATE: 16.12.2181

_**NOTE: **__Something's wrong with the audio recording software. It picks up everything but when I play it back it only plays my voice. From now on I'm only going to save transcripts._

**Raymond: **_I didn't think it would take you this long to find me._

**Miranda: **_There are only so many places you can hide, Mr. Reddington._

**R: **_Hide? From what? The might of your spandex? Oh, I'm sorry, latex._

**M: **_My suit was made to enhance my skills._

**R: **_It was made to expand your huge tracts of land._

**M: **_I came here to make an offer, not get mocked._

**R: **_Fair enough. What is the offer?_

**M: **_The Illusive Man wishes to work with you on a project._

**R: **_And what is this project?_

**M: **_There was an artifact that a mining ship, the Ishimura, uncovered. The Alliance sent-_

**R: **_Yes yes, I know what happened. Get to the point please, I have places to be, saboteurs to hire._

**M: **_We have recovered a piece of the artifact._

**R: **_Good for you. What exactly do you want from me?_

**M: **_We want you to test its capabilities._

* * *

You know, if there's one thing I've learned over the course of my life, its patience.

Which is why I've been sitting here on a bench in the spaceport for the past 3 hours waiting for Shepard.

I glance over at the fairly large weapon case I brought with me. It's big enough for a Widow sniper rifle. Or three other guns. Found it in one of my old safehouses in the 800 blocks. It's laid flat on the floor in front of me.

I wonder what's in it? Well, weapons obviously, but what weapons?

I pick it up and put it in my lap. An almost unnoticeable coat of rust covers the metal case.

I unlock it using the key I found laying right next to it in the safehouse. God, was I a moron back then. Leaving a key literally a foot away from the lock? For shame, past me, for shame.

I open it.

I see a very old flamethrower. Short barrel, ruptured fuel canister. Middle of the barrel is painted a yellowish orange color. An effective close quarters weapon, if I can repair the fuel canister.

I look closer at the grip and see two letters scratched on it: 'WH'

A slightly gravelly, familiar male voice rings through my ears:

_Flammenwerfer. Flamethrower. This beauty was invented in Krautland._

That sounds eerily familiar.

I decide to disregard it for now, chalking it up to leftover effects from the Prothean beacon or the artifact on the Ishimura.

Next to the flamethrower I see an old, worn 17 inch machete. Useful for lightly armored organics. Useless for the geth I'll be fighting.

Didn't I lose this thing on Torfan? How the hell did it get here?

Many a lung has been punctured by that blade.

Before I could delve any deeper into the mystery that is my weapon case, I hear the awkward fumbling of a person clearly not comfortable in their armor.

I quickly close the weapon case and put it under the bench.

I raise my helmet, raise my head and look at the person, quickly analyzing her.

Female, early to mid 20s, 5 foot 5 inches, short black hair, 135 pounds. Breast size: completely irrelevant, you perv.

She appears to be carrying a Striker pistol.

She makes several more stumbling steps before falling on her face.

Several minutes pass, she doesn't get up.

Feeling something akin to pity, I get up, walk the 20 feet to her and turn her over.

Her eyes suddenly open and she shoots up, accidentally uppercutting me, causing me to fall on my ass.

N7 training at work, my friends.

She pulls out her pistol and points it at my head. Or it would be my head if her hands weren't shaking so much. Right now it's drifted off to my right shoulder.

"D-don't move! I'll-I'll shoot you!" she shouts, saucer-eyed.

I look up at her, unimpressed.

"You may want to turn the safety off first." I say, smirking under my helmet.

"Wha-" She looks closer at the pistol, taking her eyes off me. Amateur mistake.

I put her in Stasis, get up and pluck the pistol from her hand.

"Don't point a gun at someone you don't intend to shoot."

I release her from Stasis. She gasps and stumbles forward but manages to keep her balance.

"So tell me, what's a girl like you doing pointing guns at Alliance soldiers?"

Her eyes widen again. "Wh- You're a- I didn't know!" she shouts, waving her arms around comically.

"So the N7 on my chest and the red stripe on my arm didn't tip you off?" I ask, lowering my helmet.

She stares at me for a moment, as if looking for something to say.

"Well, yeah, but I was scared."

Well now she's just making excuses.

I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow.

"You were scared, huh?"

"Yeah, I woke up in an alley, of course I was scared!"

Woke up in an alley? This better not be what I think it is.

"What's the last thing you remember before waking up in this alley of yours?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asks, confused.

"Humor me."

"Okay…" She gives me a slightly suspicious look. "The last thing I remember is walking out of a club with my boyfriend."

Damn. Oh well, she was too young for me anyway.

Before I could ask her anything else, I get a message on my omni-tool.

'_Under attack. Need backup. Mercs. Chora's Den. Shepard_.'

"Tell me, do you know how to use that gun?" I say, still looking down at my omni-tool.

"Yes, my boyfriend taught me how to shoot." She says with pride.

"Good on you. Anyway, my friends are in a bit of a pickle. They need my help. Feel like saving some lives?"

I hope she has chronic hero syndrome.

"I'm always up for helping those in need!" she says with a little naïve smile on her face.

Spoken like a true comic book hero.

* * *

**AN: I tried putting the fight in this chapter but it just didn't feel right. **

**See you later.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I wasn't very hapy with this chapter when I first wrote it but it turned out fine.**

* * *

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO LOG #8275637410

**DATE REMOVED**

**Isaac:**_ Okay Fyers, get this door open and then we can destroy that artifact and get off of this damned ship._

_*5 seconds of silence*_

**I: **_Come on, this isn't the time for jokes, I can hear those things clawing at the barrier behind me._

**Edward: **_You know Isaac, when I released her, she spoke to me. It was the best feeling in the world, she caressed my mind…_

**I: **_What the… What are you talking about? Who's 'she'?_

**E: **_Me and David… We understand. We understand her power. We understand HER. But then you came… You came and the gentle caresses stopped, replaced by the cold void of nothingness. She is speaking to you, I can tell._

**I: **_God damn it, Fyers! Listen, that artifact, whatever it is, it's affecting our minds. It's trying to turn us into the 'Morphs!_

*Crashing sound*

*Growling*

**E: **_No matter. You rejected her gift. You will realize that death is only the beginning._

* * *

Back at ICT, Shepard and I were hailed as tactical geniuses. We could make entire platoons disappear with just a group of three soldiers. In theory. Never did get to test that out.

In any case, it was fairly out of character for me to just charge into this fight like I did.

Which is why I'm ducking behind a dumpster in an alley being shot at by two dozen heavily armed mercenaries.

"Shit." I whisper, as I try to seal the two inch wide hole in my forearm with some medigel.

How was I supposed to know that they had a sniper with armor-piercing rounds on one of the balconies?

But hey. Certified tactical genius.

The painkillers in the medigel finally kick in, allowing me to abuse my arm again.

I turn on my comms. Nothing. These mercenaries must be jamming them.

I raise my M-11 over the lid of the dumpster and fire off a few shots.

A choked scream. Sounds like someone lost a neck.

I look to my right and at the other side of the street, behind another identical dumpster sits… the girl I met at the spaceport. Damn. Didn't even get her name.

I look behind me and see Shepard,, Wrex, Tali and Garrus Vakarian. Good, I was afraid Shepard would reject his offer to join our little merry band of misfits.

Also, they are being pinned down by five snipers so they can't do much to help me.

As I fire more shots over the lid of my dumpster, I think about who these mercs could be.

I form a biotic barrier around myself.

They aren't any military, they aren't Cerberus.

When the barrier fully forms, I pop out of cover and take out two of the mercs with headshots and hit a third in the shoulder before getting back into cover. I feel an ache in my left forearm.

They could be the Shadow Broker's agents. No, he would never throw so many people at one target.

I hear two sniper shots behind me. Two black figures fall out of the balconies they were hiding on. Good shooting.

I hear a flanging voice shout "Scratch one!" Two, you moron.

I turn to my right again.

Spaceport girl is actually using her pistol, albeit very reluctantly.

After several more seconds of shooting, I see two of the mercs putting explosive charges on the door behind them.

They're retreating.

I pop out of cover one last time and aim at one of the charges. I hope this works.

I pull the trigger and I hit the charge.

The explosion instantly kills the two closest mercs.

One is knocked into a wall, unconscious.

The other three run through the hole the explosion made and jump into an aircar that one of their merc buddies brought.

Shepard and co. get out of their little hidey holes and walk over to where Spaceport girl and I are.

"Well that was fun." I say, getting up and raising my helmet.

"I think our definitions of fun vary wildly." Says the C-Sec detective.

I chuckle and stick out my hand for a handshake. "Isaac Walker."

He appears confused for a second, then awkwardly shakes my hand. "Garrus Vakarian."

I look over at Spaceport girl, to see her being hugged by Shepard. This was probably her first firefight. First kill too.

She'll get over it.

I turn back to see Wrex standing in front of me.

I look up at him and narrow my eyes.

"You know what you remind me of?"

He raises an eye-ridge.

"A turtle." I say, clarity suddenly filling my painkiller-addled mind.

Several moments pass.

He barks a laugh.

"Wrex." he rumbles with a nod. There it is!

"Walker." I reply with a nod.

I look over to the hole that the mercs used as an escape route and see Tali looking at some broken piece of tech.

I walk over to her.

"What's got you so interested?" I say, glancing at the pieces of tech on the ground.

She jumps up, surprised.

"What? Nothing!" she half shouts.

"No need to shout, I'm friendly." I do the same awkward handshake and introduction I did with Garrus.

I see one of the mercs slumped against a wall, motionless.

"Hey Shepard!" I call her over.

"What is it, Walker?" she says with some irritation in her voice.

I motion to the slumped merc.

She nods, pulls out her pistol and moves towards him.

She points the gun at his head when she gets within five feet of him.

Spaceport girl, who I overheard Shepard saying was 'Rachel', stands next to me and looks at the scene with some trepidation.

Shepard pulls off his helmet.

Average looking, black hair, small nose.

Rachel suddenly gasps and covers her mouth with her hands.

Let me guess…

"Th-That's my boyfriend!" she shouts.

I totally called it.

* * *

**AN: I'm not very good at writing action scenes.**

**See you later.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: It took me several tries to write the log. Apparently, I can't spell **_**'nonexistent'**_**. And neither can Word.**

* * *

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO LOG #7564890214

DATE: 1.12.2178

**Isaac: **_Look at them. Wasting their lives like this. Those outfits aren't even all that appealing. They don't leave much to the imagination, let alone food._

**Shepard: **_Wow. Speaking from experience?_

_*3 seconds of female laughter*_

**I: **_Ha ha, very funny Shepard, comedy gold._

**S: **_I learned from the best._

**I: **_Ouch, that stings. Right in my nonexistent heart._

**S: **_Hey. Come on, don't be like that._

**I: **_Like what?_

**S: **_Like… like that! So depressed! I mean, you were always a little…_

**I:**_ Bitter? Cynical? Somber? Sardonic? Sarcastic? Mock-_

**S: **_Well yes, you're all of those things, but I wouldn't have put it quite as bluntly. But hey, at least you have me to lighten the mood, right?_

**I: **_Yes, you do fit the role of the comic relief sidekick character._

**S: **_What!? Me, a sidekick? You're the one that always follows me around!_

**I: **_Well that's only because you run around all the time like you're on a permanent sugar rush._

**S: **_Well, what about the time when-_

* * *

You know, I was never really a people person.

Yet, for some reason, Shepard saddled me with training the new addition to our team so she wouldn't die five seconds into a mission.

I'm talking about Rachel Rose, Spaceport girl.

"I think you'll find that not closing your eyes when firing will improve your aim exponentially." I say, watching her fumble with her pistol.

I had set up a little shooting range in my corner or the cargo bay, you see.

She looks down the sights and fires, hitting the target, finally.

She cheers and does a little victory dance.

"Now do that a hundred times and you'll reduce your chances of dying on whatever mission we go on next by about twenty percent." I sit down on a chair that I stole from the crew quarters.

I start thinking about the boyfriend. Adam Jones, 25, formerly a bartender, currently a member of a shadowy mercenary organization. Hell of a career change.

Unfortunately, he slipped away using a flashbang he had pulled from nowhere before Shepard could cuff him.

At first, Rachel was upset. Now, it seems like she's forgotten about the whole thing. Maybe she's gotten the idea that she can save him from a life of crime.

After several minutes of watching Rachel's attempts at shooting, I get a message on my omni-tool.

'_Briefing room in 5. Shepard.'_

Thank God. I hope Rachel dies on the next mission so I don't have to waste my time training her again. She probably won't, but a man can dream.

I get up an tap Rachel on the shoulder.

"Briefing room. Let's go." I say, carefully taking the pistol from her when she turns around so she doesn't shoot me in the leg.

When we get to the cargo bay door, I see Wrex, Garrus and Tali in the elevator, the door closing.

Damn it.

"Why didn't they wait for us?" Rachel asks, looking up at me.

"They can't see through walls, Rachel. They aren't _those _kinds of aliens." I say, hoping that my attitude would make her shut up for two seconds.

It works. And after two seconds, she starts talking again. Yay.

"You don't like me very much, do you?" she asks me. Only notice that just now, did you?

"Heavens, no! Whatever gave you _that_ idea?" I deadpan.

"Yeah." She mutters, turning back to the elevator door.

"Don't take it personally, I don't really _like_ anyone."

She doesn't respond.

The elevator finally comes back down.

The fourty seconds we spend in the elevator are spent in silence. Guess I really made her upset.

When we finally get to the conference room, Shepard greets us.

"Finally decided to grace us with your presence, huh?" she says, a small smirk on her face.

"Fashionably late." I say, moving to my spot in the room.

Rachel just stands next to me and stares at Shepard.

"Okay," Shepard starts, getting into business mode, "We're going to be arriving at Noveria in twenty minutes. I want Walker, Rachel and Wrex to check for any signs of geth. Walker, you're in charge. In the meantime, Tali, Kaidan and I will be going to Therum to pick up Doctor Liara T'Soni. Any questions?"

Silence.

"Good. Walker, Rachel, Wrex, get your gear."

And with that, the briefing ends and we all exit the conference room except for Shepard and Kaidan.

Huh. Wonder why they-

"Uh, where's my gear?" Rachel asks me sheepishly , interrupting my train of thought.

"You have a gun and a kinetic barrier, don't you?" I ask her.

"Yes. I think." She says, checking the small of her back and finding a little grey metallic disc.

"Then you'll be fine. This is a low risk mission, anyway. We probably won't even need to draw our weapons." I assure her.

Too bad I lied. She's going to have fun fighting the rachni with no armor and only a pistol. She's probably going to have her face melted off.

That'll make it much easier to kill the boyfriend, no grieving girlfriends to worry about.

After several minutes, Joker announces that we are nearing the Port Hanshan docking bay.

"This is Alliance frigate Normandy requesting docking permission."

No answer.

"I repeat, this is Alliance frigate Normandy requesting permission to dock."

We're closing in fast, need to make a decision.

"Just dock, we'll deal with the permits later." I tell him.

Also, Rachel seems to be talking to Wrex. Didn't really expect that.

Anyway, we dock and exit the Normandy.

As I step onto the metal docks, I expect to get threatened by Port Hanshan security.

It doesn't happen.

"What, no welcoming party?" I mutter under my breath. Wrex probably heard me, seeing as he glanced at me the moment I said that.

"No-one's here." Rachel says, shivering slightly from the cold.

"Let's look for a door. An entrance." I say, moving towards a door that I saw earlier.

When I get to about twenty feet from the door, I stop.

Five very large bloodstains cover the floor, each around two feet apart.

Blood, but no bodies.

Wrex gets closer to the blood, starts inspecting it.

Rachel just stands there, trying to ignore it.

I walk to the door. It's old. Rusty. The lock is probably jammed. I bet I could kick this down. Or tear it off its hinges with biotics.

I hear a faint scraping sound coming from somewhere behind the door.

I get closer to it.

Suddenly, I hear a loud bang.

A tall, dark, lanky figure jumps at me, stabs something into my left shoulder.

My vision goes red. Strange, alien symbols start appearing.

That sure escalated quickly.

I hear gunfire, a scream, growling, snarling.

_Fractal heuristic replicating crystal_

I push the figure off.

Searing pain in my shoulder. Not enough medigel to fix this.

Should've brought the machete.

I stumble down a hallway.

Another flash of pain, this time in my head.

Something hits me in the back of the head.

Darkness.

* * *

**AN: And now we finally get to the part I've been dying to write. I hope it works out as planned.**

**See you later.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: I'm back! Let's blame it on writer's block and move on, shall we?**

* * *

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO LOG #0182746352

**DATE REMOVED**

**Shepard:** _So, where is this gonna go down?_

**Abigail: **_It's in Brazil, I think._

**Isaac: **_Sao Paulo._

**S: **_You don't seem too thrilled._

**I: **_I did some work there with a friend. We were bodyguards. Didn't work out too well._

**A: **_What, did you blow up half the city?_

**I: **Well _technically it was three fifths._

* * *

Head trauma, five cracked ribs, three broken. Internal bleeding. Possible clavicle fracture , broken shoulder blade and probably a broken leg, judging by the pain. Oh, and my suit's run out of painkillers.

All in all, not a great start to my day.

I rummage through the desk drawers, trying to find a first aid kit. What kind of office doesn't have a first aid kit?

_Bismuth zirconite titanite_

What?

I turn, raising my pistol with my good arm.

Nothing. Only a decomposing salarian corpse on the ground. Killed himself with a scalpel. Don't know where he got it from, though.

Maybe he has the keycard for the door?

I limp over to his corpse.

Maggots are eating his big, salarian eyes. Looks like he didn't die that long ago.

'_Administrator Anoleis'_

I take the keycard. Hope its all-access.

I make my way to the door, wincing in pain after each step.

When I get to the door, I hear the shrieks of the damned somewhere behind it. Must be that time of the month.

I press the bloodstained keycard to the indicated spot.

The doors start sliding open and-

'_Error. Please contact your nearest repair service.' _is displayed in bold, semi-transparent red letters.

Oh, fuck you.

I throw the keycard on the ground, frustrated.

What the hell do I do now?

I look at the door again.

Glass. Thick, probably bulletproof glass.

I glance at my beat up pistol. Why not, I've already tried everything else.

I raise it and fire.

First shot, nothing. Second shot, it starts to crack. Third shot, the gun jams.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

I look at the cracked glass. I could probably break it on my own now.

I fire up my biotics. Don't want to over-exert myself.

I send a low-powered Warp at the cracked glass. It explodes outward, making lots of noise.

So much for stealth.

I brace myself for whatever monstrosity is outside the door.

Several moments pass, nothing happens.

I hear the sound of bone hitting stone.

Click-click-click.

A second passes, the sound repeats itself.

Click-click-click.

I poke my head out, seeing nothing other than the separating wall in front of the office. The sound seems to be coming from the other side of the wall. Maybe the shrieks of the damned came from there too.

I look at the pistol I'm holding. Smoke is coming out of every opening. If I didn't have this suit on, I bet I would have second degree burns on my hand.

So shooting is out of the question for now. I'm too badly injured for hand-to-hand combat. Stealth is my only option. Certainly did a good job of stealthily opening the door.

I walk to the separating wall as the clicking sound starts getting faint, distant.

I see two ways; left and right. They're both exactly the same and yet, for some reason, the decision seems hard.

After a whole nanosecond of deliberation I decide to go left.

I round the corner, expecting to see some kind of crouching monster or a camera and a crew telling me I've been punk'd.

No such luck.

All I see is another dead body. Human, female, average hight, purple cocktail dress. She's nailed to the wall by what looks like a sharpened bone spear. A large puddle of dry blood is on the floor behind her little receptionist's desk.

I think this is Gianna Parasini. A shame, could've used her to monitor Internal Affairs.

I sit down on her chair and turn on the terminal on the desk. Need to find some information, a map.

Password required. Shit.

I pull open one of the drawers and see what looks to be a picture of a dark haired, young man. A tearstained picture.

I pick it up and turn it around.

'_I miss you, Michael. I wish things hadn't ended the way they had but I didn't have a choice. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.'_

Your attempt at fleshing out a bland character isn't making me cry, Universe.

I type '_Michael'_ into the password box and it works, unsurprisingly.

I see a bunch of useless crap, fashion site bookmarks and… what the hell is this? A Fornax folder?

Nice.

I close the folder before I go insane. Well, more insane.

I feel pain spike in my shoulder. I grunt and put my hand on the terminal for support, grabbing my shoulder with the other.

I hear the '_ding' _of a started program.

"_**TRAINING EXERCISE DM-7 HAS BEEN INITIATED!"**_

Oh no.

Alarm klaxons engage and all the doors open.

"_**ALL GUARDS TO POSITION 7-9!" **_the amplified voice of the VI booms.

I hear the shrieks of the damned once more, only this time they are much closer and much more numerous. I estimate that they are around 150 feet away.

I look to the terminal once again, looking for some kind of override switch for the alarms.

100 feet.

There it is!

I open it and, of course, password required. I enter 'Michael'. Keycard required.

Damn it, I left Anoleis's keycard in his office!

70 feet.

I hear the clicking noise once more, only much louder.

I close the override window and search for a map.

50 feet.

I find the map but it needs to be downloaded to an omni-tool to work properly.

_Downloading… 3 minutes remaining._ That's about two minutes and twenty seconds too late.

30 feet.

I look around at the signs above the opened doors.

_Armory, Port, Lobby…_

Oh, there it is, _Medical_!

I get up from the chair and limp as fast as I can.

I get inside and press the _Emergency _button next to the door controls.

And just as the doors close, something slams into them. I hear a roar as it keeps trying to break down the door. After a second of silence, several of the things start banging on the door and roaring. I assume they're hungry. Or they just really want to show me their Pokemon trading card collection.

After I convince myself that the door can't be broken down and tune out the roaring and banging, I turn around to look at my new safehouse.

Sterile white walls and floor, medical tables, instruments and bottles filled with pills.

I lower my helmet and take in the wonderful filtered air, the smell of anesthetic and… rotting flesh?

I look at the table farthest from me. One of those things is on it.

I grab a scalpel and make my way to it.

As I get close to it, I prepare to strike.

For no reason, because it's extremities are cut off. Perhaps I should describe it.

It is a rachni warrior body fused with an armored turian torso and head. Must've been Port Hanshan security.

Six long, spidery, sharpened bone legs protrude from the sides. I assume they walk with these, which would explain the clicking noise.

I look at the head. Turian, two turian eyes and four rachni eyes. What looks to be some kind of poison gland is in the back of the throat. Maybe it's acid. Guess I'll find out.

I need to name them…

How about something generic, like Spiders? Yes, Spider will work.

The banging and roaring has stopped. They've probably lost interest.

I limp over to the doctor's desk. A note, a broken terminal and two bottles of painkillers are on it.

I pick up the note. Various words are underlined.

'_They've __gotten through the lobby__. __Security is getting pushed back__. At first I though these things were __mindless monsters__ but I was __wrong__. They use tactics, __psychological warfare__. The funny thing is, they __didn't exist__ before those __mercenaries__ came here with that __giant crate__. They must have been carrying __eggs__ of some sort. __I'm not going to let them turn me__. I've left a __corpse__ here for __whoever the hell finds this note__ to examine. They __don't have internal organs__, a brain. From what I've seen, blowing or __cutting off the limbs__ works best. Good luck, __try not to die__.'_

Well thank you, Doctor Exposition, I'll be sure to heed your pre-suicide advice.

Pain flares all across my body. I sit down in the doctor's chair.

I pop one of the bottles of painkillers open with practiced ease and down it, dry.

It takes a moment for the painkillers to start working and when they do I feel like a million bucks. Or credits, whichever you prefer.

I get up and see a cylindrical shape in the far corner of the room.

Is that… is that an armor assembler? Why the hell isn't this in the armory? Whatever, I'm not gonna complain.

I walk over to it, cautious of the Spider corpse just five feet away from me.

I open the terminal next to it.

* * *

_Loading suit list…._

_Available suits:_

_Advanced Combat Suit (__**OUT OF STOCK **__)-__**RESTRICTED**__-_

_Security Suit (__**OUT OF STOCK **__)-__**RESTRICTED**__-_

_Medical Suit (__**OUT OF STOCK**__)_

_Onyx Armor, Medium (4)_

_Snow Suit (1)_

* * *

I look down at my current suit.

It's pretty beaten up. A hole in the shoulder area, some shattered plates, the HUD is kaput.

Well, since this is Noveria, I think I'll go with the Snow Suit.

I tap the Snow Suit icon and the assembler opens.

I step inside and spread my arms.

The doors close and dozens of small, mechanical arms pull off pieces of my suit.

It starts with the helmet, the collar area where it goes when it's lowered.

Then the arms and legs, screwing everything loose and pulling it off.

And then, finally, the torso. First, the outer protective plates are screwed loose and pulled off, then the main layer that is moderately bulletproof and finally the fireproof padding.

Then it simply goes in reverse when assembling it, so that would be torso first, then arms and legs and then helmet. Only, the Snow suit gets much more heat insulating padding and some decorative fur under the collar and on the exposed joint areas.

As the assembler doors open and let me move again, I look my new suit over and smirk. Gotta love that new suit smell.

And as I step out of the assembler, alarm klaxons start ringing once more.

"_**WARNING, HEATING SYSTEMS ARE OFFLINE, PLEASE EXIT THE FACILITY IN AN ORDERLY FASHION OR YOU WILL FREEZE TO DEATH."**_

Well, shit. Can this get any worse?

"_**WARNING, INTRUDER DETECTED IN MEDICAL BAY 5, OPENING MEDICAL BAY DOORS."**_

I just had to say it, didn't I?

As the doors start opening, I raise my helmet and prepare myself.

* * *

**AN: Yes, I know spiders have 8 legs.**

**See you later.**


End file.
